


Rules

by SilverFountains



Category: Real Person Fiction, The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Friendship/Love, Jealousy, M/M, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-17
Updated: 2015-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-09 19:33:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4361513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverFountains/pseuds/SilverFountains
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I've always sworn I would never write a real person fic, even though I love reading them. But these two handsome dorks just will not leave my muse alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rules

Richard instantly regrets the sigh that escapes his lips when he opens his trailer door to Lee.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to chat you up," the American is quick to say. "I just wanted to apologise. You know what Ian is like. He just likes to tease."

 "I know. You don't need to apologise for him. Ian doesn't need to apologise for anything either. Sorry Lee, I'm really tired and I just want to read over tomorrow's script... "

"I'll let you go. I just don't like to see you upset."

"I'm not upset."

"Or for things to be awkward between us."

"Lee," Richard says sternly. "It's okay. Good night."

It's Lee who sighs this time when the door is closed again. _Well, that went badly._ He'd come here to  see if Richard was okay after the taunting of their colleagues and now he's the one feeling like he needs a hug.

+++

Richard closes the script and pours himself a glass of red instead since now his mind is all over the place. It's not that he doesn't like Lee. I mean, he does! A lot! But the rule is that he does not date another actor in the same production. Ever. He's here to do a job and he intends to do it well. He had been overjoyed to get the part of Thorin Oakenshield and he wasn't going to let a crush get in the way of the best performance he could give it. Nor Lee's for that matter. After all Thorin and Thranduil were supposed to be arch enemies. And he was Thorin. He'd crawled into the dwarf king's very being,  wanted to live and breathe him, feel his emotions. So falling for his onscreen adversary was a no no. He could not afford for his character to despise Lee's character whilst his eyes would glint with glee like some love-struck teen. He was too much of a professional for that.

Besides he hated it that Ian was laying his feelings for Lee bare for all including the tall handsome American before he'd barely acknowledged them to himself. He admires and respects the older actor enormously and it's been a great honour to work with Sir Ian McKellen. But the fact that the veteran has come out to the world doesn't mean that everyone needs to know about his sexuality and attractions as well. Richard maintains that that is no one's business. That doesn't mean anything other than that his private life is his own.

+++

Lee stares up at the ceiling, picking his nails. He feels thoroughly confused after having spoken to Richard. _Ian was just winding you both up. For god's sake, Lee, you know he's been trying to match-make almost everyone on set! He even tried to get Aidan and Dean to snog when we all know they're as straight as anything. The fact that he picked on you and Richard means nothing. The fact that Richard seemed to take it to heart when he left rather abruptly thereafter doesn't mean anything at all other than that he's tired and likes to keep himself to himself._

But he can't help but wonder... It wasn't just Ian who had remarked that Richard seemed to have a soft spot for him. Martin had not so subtly hinted that _Thorin_ was taking more of an interest in the elvenking than the hobbit. And even Peter had made a comment that Richard and he seemed to be getting on very well, wink.

He sighs again. Richard's curt answers and gestures had only indicated that they were colleagues, not even friends and certainly nothing more. He isn't even sure why he doesn't just let it go. He's fucked colleagues before but it's not a habit of his and although he thinks the tall Brit is one of the most handsome and intriguing guys he's ever met it's not like he's in love.... Right?

+++

Luke was a nice guy. Good actor. Friendly, funny. Everyone seemed to get on well with him. So why not Lee. After all they were the same age and had a lot of things in common. And he was openly gay ...

Richard cringes at that last thought that has somehow crept in as he looks at the two of them laugh as they rehearse together. So what? So are half of the cast of The Hobbit and why the hell does that even matter? They're rehearsing their scene together. Thranduil and Bard. _Remember it's a movie you are making here?!_

As he abruptly turns around he almost bumps straight into Graham.

"Are y'allright mate?" the Scott raises an eyebrow. "You look a little pale."

"Fine thanks. Just tired." He knows the excuse sounds thin although they really are all exhausted.

"Aye, it's been a long few days," Graham smiles. "Fancy a drink later?" he asks more out of courtesy than anything else. Richard hardly ever socialises in the evening. He's not the only one. They all have busy schedules and early starts and most just crash in their trailers on the evening, reading through next day's script.

"Not tonight, thanks," Richard answers as expected and with a last glance back takes his leave.

+++

Lee feels a little stab in his chest as he watches Richard leave. "Sorry," he mumbles an apology to Luke when he realises it's his turn and he has completely forgotten his line.

Luke follows his gaze, seeing Richard leave the hangar. "You're so head over heels," he sniggers.

"What do you mean? I'm not...!" Lee splutters bit then finds himself grin stupidly. "Yeah. But please don't say anything. He doesn't feel the same way and the last time Ian made a comment he completely freaked."

Luke cocks his eye at Lee. "How do you know he doesn't feel the same way? Have you asked him?"

"No! He...  He just doesn't. I mean, he's never given me reason to think that he does."

"Well, either my gaydar is very off or you're very blind," Luke chuckles. "Because to me he looks utterly smitten with you." He gets to his feet. "He's a professional. Very private too. You might just have to be blunt and take the risk of being rejected. You don't ask you don't get. And you don't have any more scenes to film together if it goes badly. Soon we'll all be returning to our own lives. You might not want to let this fish slip your net," he hints and throws Lee a cheeky smile.

Lee bites his lip as he watches Luke walk off. _Is he winding me up? Or.... Could I really just tell Richard how I feel about him? We've nearly finished filming but we still have all the promos and the premiere... Jesus, you are thirty five years old, start acting your age! Just ask the man out if you like him so much!_

He slowly gets up too and decides he needs some fresh air to think straight before he does something really stupid.

+++

"Good evening, Lee."

The younger actor's eyes grow wide when he finds Richard dressed rather smartly in black jeans and a shirt, which makes him look even taller. "Er hi! You look nice," he blurts out and prays he's not blushing.

"Thanks," Richard smiles. Lee cannot remember the last time the Brit smiled so brightly at him. "Graham invited me for a drink, but I've already got plans."

"Oh. I see." Lee frowns in confusion, wondering why Richard is telling him this.

"Unless of course you don't want to go for dinner with me. "

The American blinks hard. "What? Dinner? You mean... Us?"

Richard nods, closing up his trailer. "Would you like to get changed first? I was just on my way to see you but you beat me to it."

Lee realises he's uncharacteristically speechless and staring at Richard like he's just proposed to him.

"Lee?"

"Er yes. Give me five minutes." And he strides in his long stride towards his own trailer.

Richard smiles at he watches the American. He has accepted his invitation, even if it was extended rather haphazardly. He's still not sure what his own intentions actually are for tonight. But if nothing else they're going to have dinner together, just the two of them.  They'd had lunch together before when Lee first joined the cast and had talked for hours then. But something had changed. At one point conversation had become awkward between them

And he knows that he had both subconsciously and consciously started to distanced himself from Lee. That was around the time that he had started to wake up with Lee's name on his lips and wood in his briefs. When he would watch Lee is his elvish regalia on set and catch himself staring in sheer idolisation. When he knew he was starting to fall for the tall American with the infectious smile.

Now he finds himself smiling as he walks to his hire car.

+++

Lee flusters as he digs through his temporary wardrobe. He curses Richard for sending him such confusing messages. He curses him for finally inviting him for dinner with no notice to even have a shower first. He curses him for not actually explaining what 'dinner' means. _Don't get yourself in a state. It probably is just his way of saying goodbye. Or maybe even to let you down gently in some awfully polite British kind of fashion._

+++

"Ready?" Richard smiles as Lee yanks open the passenger door. "You look nice," he compliments his date, now dressed in some light blue jeans and a light jumper.

Lee nods. He feels nervous and he doesn't like that. He hasn’t felt this nervous for a long time and certainly not around Richard before. "So where are we going?" he tries to just keep the conversation neutral. But sitting this close to Richard, feeling the man's presence brush against him, suddenly is making him break out into a sweat.

"Just a nice little restaurant I have found. It's not far from here." The Englishman glances over to his colleague and smiles.

Lee smiles too. He's still not sure where this is going and he doesn't want to make any wrong assumptions. _Just go on the basis of friendship. Friendship is good._

_+++_

The food is good too. The company better. The awkward moments between them are already long gone by the time the main dish is served and it feels like they are back where they started, talking about shared interest and work and hobbies and life after The Hobbit.

"So is there someone you're going back home to?" Richard throws casually into the conversation.

Lee almost drops his cutlery in shock. "Er no. I'm single. If that's what you're asking." His heart suddenly pounds loudly. "And you?" he tries to ask with the same casual flair, not sure if he's succeeding.

"No. Not yet."

"Not yet single or not yet going home to someone?" Lee asks with a frown. _Damn it's hot in here!_

Richard just smiles, annoyingly so, sticking a potato in his mouth.

"Richard er... Thank you for inviting me for dinner," Lee coughs nervously. "I er... Can I ask you what this is?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well... Is this a date?" he decides to ask outright.

Richard puts down his knife and fork and wipes his mouth with his napkin. "I'm having a nice meal with a good friend."

"Right. Okay, that's cool," Lee smiles politely, but he knows he's only barely hiding his disappointment.

"Would you like it to be a date?" Richard asks the question playfully, flirtatiously. But suddenly he feels unsure about Lee's response. In all of the last few months, he realises now, he'd only questioned his own feelings. Never Lee's. He suddenly realises just how arrogant that is, that he'd been convinced Lee likes him and that he would say yes if only Richard extended the invite. _What if I'm wrong? What if he doesn't feel that way at all and I'm just making a complete cock of myself?_

"Yes." Lee grins at him. "If that's an option I'd like this to be a date."

Richard feels the tension melt from his shoulders as he grins back. "Then it's a date."

Lee begins to laugh. "You are really bad at this, you know."

"I know," Richard chuckles too, feeling himself blush a little a he sticks his fork back in his food.

+++

"I had a really lovely evening, thank you," Lee smiles after Richard had insisted on paying. He's not sure where that go from here though. _A date..._ He's still not confident exactly what the Englishman had meant by that. A romantic date? There is definitely a spark between them, he's sure that Richard feels it too. But what now? Do they just shake hands and return to their own trailers? Can he kiss Richard? Somehow that feels way too forward right now. Let alone anything else.

But as they get into the car, back in that slightly awkward silence, Richard turns to him without starting the engine. "I'm not going back to my trailer. But I can drop you off at yours."

"Oh right, yes please." _Argh, the man is such a closed book! What does that mean now? This was nice but this is where it ends?_

"Unless you'd like to break open a bottle of wine with me? I've found a nice quiet hotel on the outskirts of town," Richard says in such a low rumble that Lee isn't sure he's heard that right. So he just looks at the Brit, not quite sure how to answer.

Richard takes Lee's silence very much the wrong way. "I'll take you back," he hiccups, feeling the rejection hurt him much harder than he'd anticipated. He starts the engine, trying his very best to keep his emotions under control. _Ouch, didn't see that coming! Well, you can safely say you fucked up in an epic way!_ Already he is picturing himself drinking that entire bottle of wine on his own to drown his sorrows like a complete loser.

He feels so tense that he almost yelps when Lee puts his hand on his thigh. "Another poorly masked invitation, Mr Armitage?" the younger man grins like a Cheshire cat now. "Did you really just invite me back to a hotel room with you?"

Richard takes a very long and very deep breath. "If you'd like... I know I'm awful at this. I'm an introvert. But I am also an old fashioned romantic." He hasn't moved the car yet and takes it out of gear again, turning to Lee. "I'd like to explore what is between us. I feel... attracted to you. But I don't want to invite you back to my trailer. If we do anything I want to do it properly. I don't want it to feel like some cheap vacation screw."

Lee's eyes grow impossibly wide at the implication. "No, you don't strike me as the cheap vacation screw type," he chuckles. "Alright then, handsome," he dares. "Let's crack open that bottle." _Oh my!_

+++

He's not even sure how or when they ended up in the large king sized bed. The evening just feels like a hallucination. But when those large rough fingers trail experimentally down his back reality feels very good indeed. "I hope you had planned this," he murmurs. "Because I've brought nothing.”

"I thought you know me as someone who meticulously plans everything by now," Richard whispers a hot breath against his skin. "I wasn't going to invite you back here without."

"Good," Lee smiles, closing his eyes, enjoying the firm but gentle massage. He reaches blindly behind himself for the bulge in Richard's underwear, grinning widely when he is greeted with the man’s interest. "I didn't think we'd ever get here. Was beginning to lose hope that we'd get to spar in real life." He looks over his shoulder. "Was this your intention all along? To make me wait until we'd finished filming? Or did you change your mind?"

Richard considers this. He knows exactly what made him change his mind. Whilst Lee was showing him interest he had been able to keep his distance. But when he'd seen him with Luke earlier ... A threat. An adversary! He chuckles at his own green dragon. "Dragon sickness," he murmurs in Lee's ear with a grin.

"You were jealous?" Lee somehow instantly knows what Richard means. "Oh my god, Rich, of whom?!"

"Sssh, you talk far too much," Richard just smiles.

"And you talk far too little! Tell me! Oh my god, it's Luke isn't it? That's why you stormed off today!" the American laughs out loud.

Richard silences the younger actor with a firm kiss pressed hard to his lips. _Soft. Everything about Lee is soft. Well, almost everything..._

_+++_

Being with Lee feels unique. Like he's a species all of his own. Not quite human. Not quite elf, like his character. A one of a kind. He seems to know him more intimately than he knows himself. The way he touches him, caresses him, his fingers somehow always there where he wants to feel them most. He's both submissive and dominant at once. Feminine and masculine all in one. Extraordinary. And he truly feels like he can let go with this man of all his self-imposed restraints. No, he doesn't just take colleagues or anyone for that matter to a hotel room for sex. Ever. That's not his style. That's not him. But with Lee it's different. This doesn't feel like a first time somehow. And it certainly does not feel like a last time as the American meets his hips, pulling him in, moving together passionately like a Latin dance.

Being with Richard feels like all his dreams coming true at once. He's never been with a guy before who is so devoted to everything he does up to and including in the bedroom. The moment they become one, when Richard finally drops his last remaining barriers and lets Lee truly see him almost makes the American choke up. So strong and yet vulnerable too. Rough and gentle all at once. He feels like he's been allowed a glimpse behind the normally impenetrable mithril armour of the man. And he gives himself over too, completely, riding the waves of pleasure together.

So much built up desire. So much unquenched lust. An evening, a night is hardly enough to make up for each night that went before when they'd denied themselves this. But eventually they run out of steam, bodies satisfied, hearts fulfilled.

+++

Lee grins as Richard returns from the bathroom, all glowing still from their intense exercise. He loves how relaxed he looks now.

Richard crawls back onto the bed, smiling widely at the blond man next to him. "Feeling better?"

Lee laughs but nods, "Much better. You?"

"Hmm, yes."

"So... Just so I'm clear... Where are we now? Was this a one off? Or... "

"I never have one night stands," Richard snorts resting his head back.

"I see. Is this your grumpy way of telling me you loooooove me?" Lee purrs, putting his head on the Brit's broad chest.

Richard simply smiles, stroking his fingers through Lee's blond strands. "It means I'd like to do this again." He also does not declare his love on a first date like that.  But Lee will learn that and all his other self-imposed rules over time. Today he's broken more rules than ever before. And it feels exceptionally good.


End file.
